Batteries are widely used to provide power to operate devices which are portable and are thereby not amenable to connection with fixed generators or outlets. Sometimes the batteries are carried as a separate pack and can be recharged or replaced. These enjoy a substantial employment, but only when they can readily be connected to the devices which they are to power.
There are, however, many installed devices to which access is not only restricted, but which is risky. In such installations the battery must be very closely coupled physically to the device which it powers. In medical devices that are implanted, for example, the battery which powers a device such as a pacemaker must be implanted along with the pacemaker or be connected to it by leads which pass through the body. The latter involves many problems, not the least of which is infection, but the battery is rechargable or replaceable.
However, if the battery is implanted, it must someday be replaced, and its limited life is the major failure mechanism in conventional pacemaker designs. Replacement of batteries is a surgical procedure with inherent risks of its own.
Numerous suggestions have been made for recharging an implanted energy source, but all of them which are known to the instant inventors involve exposing the wearer to attendant risks.
While devices implanted in the body represent the presently best-known application of this invention, the power source of this invention is also useful wherever there is a movable element that can exert a bending force on a tape-like current generator.
It is an object of this invention to provide a power source that provides an electrical charge to a storage device as the consequence of a bending autonomic force. An example is an implanted capacitor or battery, coupled to the source, the storage device being connectible to a user device such as a pacemaker. The source itself is mounted to structure which exerts a bending action on it, such as muscle tissue, lung tissue, or a rib.